The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday called on pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson to stop sending the covid-19 vaccines it produces in South Africa to rich countries, warning of vaccine shortages in Africa.
“We urge J&J to give urgent priority to vaccine distribution in Africa before thinking of supplying rich countries that already have enough [doses],” WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference.
The WHO director-general, quoted by Efe news agency, also asked Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche to share its technology and information related to the drug “tocilizumab”, which the UN agency recommended in June for the treatment of severe cases of covid-19.
“We ask that [this drug] be distributed in an equitable way,” Ghebreyesus stressed.The organisation’s head complained about the lack of vaccines in poor countries, despite WHO appeals.
According to the latest figures from the African Union’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the continent has counted more than 7.3 million cases since the pandemic began, including more than 185,000 deaths.
